Storage Area Network – IT Living Lab

For this project the students were responsible for configuring one of the SANs and making it accessible on the network. The students evaluated the performance of the SAN based on the storage capacity, the high-speed access using fiber optic cable, as well as hot-swappable drives. After evaluating the performance the students eliminated power redundancy by creating RAID groups and ensured centralized management of storage and backups. The students discovered IP addresses by using Angry IP Scanner and that there was an enabled password on both of the controllers.

Student Team Members: Chris Harley, Robert VanHentenryck

Testimonials

The Living Lab was a great opportunity to gain different technical experience in the IT field. The projects were all challenging and simulated a real-world environment to deliver upon. Nick Barnett

The Living Lab has been a great experience for me throughout the semester. I worked with some technologies that were previously unfamiliar and consulted with a client to develop a good solution to implement for them. Working in many unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations truly pushes you, and I believe it’s the best way to foster growth in any profession. So for the Living Lab to give that opportunity is a great thing. Nathanial William Adams

Living Lab gave me a chance to experience working with real-world projects, not just books and notes like other classes. In addition, I got to learn new techniques (terminate network cables, set up switches and hubs), new software (ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer), and experience a corporate environment. Finally, Living Lab gave me a chance to work on my problem-solving skills as well as self-sufficiency, because I had to do a lot of research on my own to solve any issue that came up. Anh Pham

My Living Lab experience has been really challenging and a life-learning, real-world experience. James Lamar Willis

The Living Lab has given me the chance to work on a project that I have yet to encounter in my six years of IT experience. It’s broadened my horizons and given me a great chance to work with other students in my field. I have also been able to pick up information from other fields of IT that I wouldn’t have been able to learn in my current job. Jerry Henderson

I have definitely determined that this class could be just like a real life IT position. You never know how long a project might take, even a simple task. I’ve had some tasks take only a couple of hours, and I worked on one project for 36 hours straight. But I feel that Living Lab is helping to prepare me for what will come in the professional world. Eugene Gephart

The Living Lab provided me with a unique, real-world experience that other classes cannot. This class enabled me to use the skills that I have acquired from my previous classes and apply them to a real-world setting. Kris Westermann

FreeNAS is an open-source, Linux based freeBSD, network storage operating system. It can be installed on virtually any hardware platform that allows it to share data over a network. In this project, FreeNAS is being used to house multiple virtual machines for a virtual training program. FreeNAS utilizes a Web-GUI that enables a remote connection through a browser using the assign IP address for the FreeNAS server. This connection is initially insecure and needs a certificate of authority to be e… Read more Creating a secure CA connection for FreeNAS to use with ESXi 6 Virtual Environment

I have gained a lot of useful experience with Mac OS X administration, such as performance monitoring, maintenance, user and group creation, remote and command line administration, and load testing. It has challenged my skill set, and it will be very beneficial for me in the future. Joseph Warren Balazs

The Living Lab has been very educational for me this semester. I gained experience in collaborating with a client in order to install a Polycom Videoconferencing system, to provide a new way of communication for the client. Paul D. Bailey